Friday, April 18, 2014

Reprise: Hare Polish Electric Flame

Welcome, friends! Yesterday's convivial tête-à-tête with the shimmering orange goodness that is Zoya Beatrix inspired me to try again with an orange polish that kinda broke my heart last summer, Electric Flame from indie polish maker Hare Polish. Electric Flame was released as part of Hare's fantastic four-polish Illuminate Life collection for fall 2012. Inspired by marine bioluminescence, each polish represents a different example of this very cool phenomenon. I love this collection, each and every polish!

Electric Flame is based on the otherworldly Electric Flame scallop, a marine bivalve mollusk with vivid
reddish orange mantle and tentacles and a strip of bioluminescent
tissue on the edge of its mantle that pulses with blue light. The polish is a peachy melony pastel orange jelly with neonesque qualities filled with iridescent blue hex glitters and glowing blue and purple glass flecks.

My difficulties with this polish last time around had to do with two facts: a) peachy melony pastel neonesque oranges aren't the best with my skin tone, and b) my insistence on trying to layer it over a base polish. The former is incontrovertible, but my polish aesthetic has developed enough flexibility in this area that it no longer bothers me. The latter will be rectified right now as I'm going commando with Electric Flame this time around. I expected application to be filled with panic and frustration and it totally was not. I prepared for the slightly thick and sticky gel-like consistency of this polish by adding some polish thinner, which worked like a charm. Still, Electric Flame has a certain fluffiness or bulk to its formula that may set off alarm bells but should really just be ignored because it slims down as it dries. Pigmentation was a bugaboo for me last time and the cause of my abortive layering attempts. I decided then and there that the next time I tried Electric Flame I was going to accept and welcome its native translucence as a feature (not a bug), and that's what I did.

Given that my natural nails are hellishly ridged and polish-stained, I was prepared for multiple coats. If you have shorter, less stained nails than mine, three coats of Electric Flame will do you. For me, I did four thin coats and though I can still see visible nail line at least the staining and ridges have been rendered moot. Electric Flame dries naturally in fairly good time, which was helpful. The natural finish is semi-matte and wants a nice glossy topcoat to looks its best and show off the gleaming iridescence of the glitters and glass flecks. Photos show four coats of Electric Flame over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite, which worked like a charm to even out this not-so-wanting-to-self-level polish and give it a shiny finish.

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

Hare Polish Electric Flame

My camera tends to oversaturate colors like this but I do not think it misrepresents Electric Flame here. The more direct the natural light, the brighter the orange becomes and because the formula's translucence really lets the light in, it can get really really bright and fluorescent. But away from direct light, in the shade, it has a milky/pastel pinkish melony look that is creamsicle sweet. I love how the iridescent hexes and the glass flecks in this polish take on a pink/purple glow against the orange base and add their splashes of pink, it's unexpected and quite fetching really. Against a darker more tawny skin tone, Electric Flame would be a delicious, unusual alternative to summer neons.

Anyway, hurray for second (and third, and fourth) chances and the freedoms of an ever-expanding flexible aesthetic! And thanks for reading!